Wednesday, March 05, 2014

ACN News - Cruelty and Compassion in Nigeria

A disabled man from
northern Nigeria has spoken of his horror as he was forced to watch extremists
carry out a string of atrocities, including the killing of four men and arson
attacks that razed a Catholic school to the ground.

Staff and students
from St. Joseph’s Minor Seminary in the small community of Shuwa fled for their
lives and hid in a nearby forest when suspected Boko Haram militants stormed
into the village with an armored tank, rocket launchers, high caliber guns and
more than a dozen jeeps.

Among those unable to
escape was St. Joseph’s staff member Andrew (full name not given for security
reasons). After being discovered by the militants, the disabled man was placed
in his wheelchair and taken outside where he was forced to watch his home go up
in flames.

Andrew was then
wheeled to other parts of the seminary campus where arson attacks and other
atrocities were carried out in front of him.

The chapel, priests’
house, classroom and other facilities were all attacked using high explosives
and there was another attack at a nearby clinic run by Augustinian Sisters who
managed to escape just in time.

Most traumatic of all
for Andrew was being forced to witness the killing of four security guards who
worked at the seminary.

Andrew’s story was
told through a close personal friend, Father John Bakeni, who is very familiar
with the seminary in Adamawa state.

Describing the
atrocity, carried out last Wednesday (Feb. 26, 2014), Bakeni told international
Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN): “After the security men had
been shot, Andrew was told he would be next.”

“However, the military
commander said he wanted to consult with a spiritual leader and he came back
and said that during Jihad cripples are to be spared. Andrew is convinced that
this is what saved his life; otherwise he would have been killed.”

Bakeni explained that
the extremists “interrogated” Andrew about his Christian faith and added that
his religion had put him at direct risk of being killed.

The priest, who is
from Maiduguri Diocese, where Shuwa is located, added, “Boko Haram have made it
very clear in their [video] clips that among those they are fighting are the
Christians and the government.”

The priest said, “Of
course Andrew was very frightened by what happened but he has shown enormous
strength through all this.”

“What we need most of
all,” said Bakeni, “is your prayers. The cycle of violence we are experiencing
now shows every sign of getting worse.”

He went on to praise
the quick thinking of the Sisters as well as the staff and students from St
Joseph’s Seminary, Shuwa, who fled quickly. “They had a very narrow escape.”

The attack on the
seminary was part of a wave of violence in which nearly 40 people died in three
separate incidents in this region of north-east Nigeria.

As well as attacking
the seminary in Shuwa, the militants targeted government, police and other
security buildings, banks and people’s homes across the village and neighboring
communities.

In a separate attack,
43 people, most of them students, were killed as they slept at a boarding
school in Yobe state.

Diocesan officials
have confirmed that 22 died while at Mass on the morning of Sunday, Jan. 26,
2014, when suspected militants armed with guns and explosives opened fire on
parishioners at St Paul’s Catholic Church in Waga Chakawa, Madagali.

The attacks come amid
growing concern about violence in the region which has continued even though
last May President Goodluck Jonathan placed Adamawa, Yobe and Borno states
under a state of emergency and installed a heightened security presence.

Editor’s Notes:

Directly under the
Holy Father, Aid to the Church in Need supports
the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need.
ACN is a Catholic charity - helping to bring Christ to the world through
prayer, information and action.

Founded in 1947 by Father Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul
II named “An Outstanding Apostle of Charity,” the organization is now at work
in over 145 countries throughout the world.

The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including
providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church
buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since
the initiative’s launch in 1979, 43 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed
worldwide.

For more information contact Michael Varenne at
michael@churchinneed.org or call
718-609-0939 or fax718-609-0938. Aid to the Church in Need, 725 Leonard Street,
PO Box 220384, Brooklyn, NY 11222-0384. www.churchinneed.org

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